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Everything you said about Kinsler, while true, could also be said about Buckner. Yet here we are with a thread about Buckner 32 years later...

I’d like Kelly back, but his walk issues in the closer role concern me. And we all love Kimmi ;)1

You don’t think you did? You said anyone who doesn’t think this is a good farm is solely basing this on what DD has done in the past.. You’re saying that fans like myself and others along with Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, MLB.com, and numerous other articles are basing this negatively evaluation solely on DD’s past drafting history in Detroit. We aren’t. You can dismiss my credibility (which is not unwise) but to dismiss anyone’s thought on the subject so casually without even considering they have a source or some knowledge isn’t conducive to anything. See how we differed. I asked about your source. You assigned me mine and then discredited it. And then called me condescending on top of it...

Arguably it worked against them, since they gave it up in the first two rounds...

But in two of those titles, they weren’t even the best team in the AL East. Would you say there was no luck involved there?

It’s one thing to have opinions that are contrarian, unsupported or unpopular. It’s another to accuse anyone who disagrees with your opinions of having an agenda...

Coaches too, I think the GG has produced more controversial choices than any other award, but a lot of this is the historical weak supporting statistics and the inability of voters to select the players they are most familiar with...

The injury excuse might be legit. But I will agree his lack of hustle appeared to be disheartening. It’s a shame because he has a serious arm and normally I would say, along with Benintendi, is a prime extension candidate. Cora and DD know the truth, or at least more of it than us, and will act accordingly...

That’s not true anymore because teams are no longer willing to use a Rule 5 pick on a 19yo and then try to hold him on the 25 man roster for a full season just so they can hope he pans out, and then if he does he gets to arbitration a year earlier and gets too expensive took fast...

I think he’s done better than I thought, too. But this farm is undeniably weak. The Sox have very, very little above A-ball. And the bulk of the players in A-ball won’t become anything just through normal minor league attrition. Right now, they have a handful of prospects that could be considered MLB-ready, and even that includes players like Sam Travis, whose ceiling is “bench bat on a bad team” and whose best skill is his ability to be paid minimum wage...

The organizations that rate farm systems don’t use the history of the GM; they scouts d evaluate all the players in the farm system. Exactly what are you basing this positive appraisal of the farm system on?

Being positive won’t make any of them better players. It’s not a good farm, and the reason is simple - assets were moved or promoted to help theMLB club. That’s ok. That’s the purpose of a farm system. But there’s no reason to be blind about. Every expert will tell you it’s among the worst, and those experts are wrong a lot, but unfortunately it’s usually the other way - where a player they think is good doesn’t turn out. It’s not time to rebuild yet, but having another trade asset or two would help the current run....

Can we let Feltman pitch an inning or two above A-ball before anointing him closer of the future? You know, just to be sure he isn’t Craig Hansen 2.0...

As a closer? He’d be the least experienced name on he list. If the Sox sign him, do you expect him to close?

Allen, Britton, Familia,Robertson, Ramos, Miller, Wilson. Soria, or Herrera. Or they could trade . A recent MLBTR chat proposed a Jose Leclerc-Michael Chavis trade that the moderator felt was close...

But what have you learned from that? Those numbers span 23 seasons and those teams are all completely different players, managers, executives, etc. over that time frame. Might as well judge the Red Sox based on their post-season record from 1919 to 2003...

Everyne likes to say this, like it's a big deal and so difficult for an MLB-caliber pitcher to close in Boston. But is this really true? How many failed closers have the Sox had since, say, Chad Fox in 2003? How many before that? Other than Alfredo Aceves in 2012, who was pressed into the role, have we really seen a lot of closers fold under the Boston pressure? And how often have we seen that from a healthy and experienced closer?

Then make the net bigger. Set the puck on fire. Add some trampolines. Find another way to make the game more exciting.

They are certainly not unlimited...

He does live in Southern California. He probably needs this raise to cover his property taxes...

1) DH needs to be ubiquitous, Step up, NL, 2) There are rules in the rulebook for how long a pitcher can hold the ball between pitches. These need to be enforced. 3) Don't sweat the shift. I'd rather see a hitter try to beat the shift than watch an annoying LOOGY come in to face one batter. 4) Baseball hs become heavily dependent on analytics and statistics, but why do opponents of this pretend this is unique to baseball? Other sports have copied it, but done so poorly. For example, the NBA was seeing a rise in analytics from fans and bloggers, and then teams hired these guys too quickly to get ahead of the opponent, and didn't allow for them to actually collaborate and work out the flaws in their systems. At least MLB did it right. 5) Yes, there are a lot of home run dependent offenses. But this could also be a fad. In the 1980's, the game was heavily dependent on stolen bases, which were suddenly the secret offensive weapon. Fad. Gone. The early 2000's saw teams relying heavily on walks. Not so any more. These things do change, despite everyone saying "No this is different" every time.

But a lot of people have heard of Bryce Harper, who is well on his way to being the most famous baseball player since Reggie Jackson...

Agreed That was the one we all wanted to see".. just once before I die..". Whereas today the second string second baseman can be vilified for costing the team a single game in a series they won 4 games to one....

I think it's pretty bland compared to other systems. And since Groome hasn't pitched, the Sox might break or tie last year's record for fewest top 100 prospects in team history. The fact that Groome has only 62 unimpressive IP in 3 years and still makes the top 5 on everyone's list of Sox prospects should speak volumes about this system...

Dombrowski has said he is prepsred to roll out Barnes or Brasier as the closer. But I expect this is to minimize the salivating from the agents of Cody Allen, Dave Robertson, and Zach Britton. These three probably top his list of most likely targets, although he could certainly also go the trade route again...